[Mailman-Users] Mm-handler user unknown problem

[vancleef at lostwells.net]

The esteemed Kammen van, Marco, Springer SBM NL has said:
> 
> From: mailman-users-bounces+marco.vankammen=springer.com at python.org
> [mailto:mailman-users-bounces+marco.vankammen=springer.com at python.org]
> On Behalf Of Kammen van, Marco, Springer SBM NL
> Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 4:22 PM
> To: mailman-users at python.org
> Subject: [Mailman-Users] Mm-handler user unknown problem
> 
> Dear All,
>  
> Using:
>  
> Red Hat Linux release 9
> Mailman 2.1.9
> Sendmail 8.12.8
>  
> First of all i'm a total sendmail noob so please be nice :-D I've been
> scrolling through FAQ's mailinglists etc all day and found many people
> have this problem but didn't find a really good solution for this.. Most
> problems seem to be related to people forgetting to setup aliases, but
> in this case i'm using mm-handler which as far as i understand overrides
> the use of aliases and only needs some address in the virtusertable. (if
> address doesn't exist in virtusertable then goto mm-handler and get
> specific mailinglist address)
>  
If you are new to sendmail, I would strongly suggest not attempting to
use the mm-handler setup for initial setup and test.  There is a
four-step procedure for doing an initial sendmail configuration and 
checkout in the archives at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/mailman-users%40python.org/msg43689.html

The main.mc statements in that document are correct for Sendmail 8.12
and Sendmail 8.13

This setup presumes that you are installing Mailman on the
incoming/outgoing mail host.  

> I got everything up and running, made the test list, received the mails
> from the test list, was able to subscribe people to it using the
> webinterface, the newly subscribed people also received the mails.
>  
> Problem is when trying to send a mail to the new mailinglist.
>  
> 550 5.1.1 <testlist at senldogo0013.springer-sbm.com>... User unknown

This is a fairly clear indication that you do need to install a set of
alias pipes to Mailman.  On a sendmail installation, you do this
manually.  bin/genaliases will produced the needed aliases in the
proper form for sendmail.  You need a full set of aliases for each
list you create.  

It's important to understand that the Mailman aliases are pipes to 
Mailman scripts.  What you are doing is telling the sendmail daemon
for incoming mail to bypass normal sendmail spool handling and,
instead, to pipe the data to the Mailman qrunners.  
>  
I'll snip and skip over your configuration data for mm-handler as I
don't run that configuration on my sites.  I do not know if anyone
reading this mail list is using that configuration.  

For a basic Sendmail-Mailman integration you do not need to 
enable and configure the mailertable and virtusertable features to
support Mailman if you are not using them to support your site
Sendmail configuration for regular user accounts.  
>  
> My main concern is the sendmail.cf, i first edited the os delivered
> sendmail.mc file did some cut pasting from the mailman.mc file then
> generated the sendmail.cf file using the proper m4 method. Maybe someone
> can give me a basic sendmail.cf which can be easily used for the basic
> mail & mailman functionality cause the mailman.mc file which comes with
> the package can't be used cause that one gives lots of errors. 
>  
> Thanks for the help!
>  
I'll assume that by "mailman.mc" you mean "main.mc".  You can start
with the sendmail distribution main.mc file.  The only feature that
Mailman requires that is not enabled by default is smrsh.  
FEATURE(smrsh, /usr/lib/smrsh)dnl

Make sure that is the location of the smrsh executable on your system.
Also make sure that the link in sm.bin points to the correct file.  

I can't vouch for the correctness of the main.mc statements included
in the Mailman distribution contrib directory.  If you get M4 assembly
errors when making the cf files from the mc/m4 files, then you need to
review the statements you are using against the Sendmail information 
in the O'Reilly Sendmail "bat book" and the Sendmail FAQ.  

Most of the statements you will add to the distribution main.mc file
are site-specific.  If you are new to Sendmail, and doing an initial
installation, I'll suggest that you back down to the default Sendmail
configuration, do what is necessary to get it to work with local user
accounts using a simple MUA to test it, then use the 4-step procedure
to integrate Mailman and Sendmail.  

Hank